Finsbury Park: 1 killed, 8 injured as van hits worshippers at London mosque

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A van ploughed into worshippers outside a mosque in London on Sunday night, killing one person and injuring eight people in what the Prime Minister described as a “potential terrorist attack”.

Officers arrested one man after they were called shortly after midnight to the incident on Seven Sisters Road, near Finsbury Park station.

One man died and eight people were taken to the hospital, Scotland Yard said. The  48-year-old driver was arrested by police after being detained by members of the public at the scene.

The London Ambulance Service said eight people were taken to the hospital and a number of people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Prime Minister Theresa May said police were treating the van incident “as a potential terrorist attack”.

“I will chair an emergency meeting later this morning. All my thoughts are with the victims,  their families and the emergency services on the scene,” she said.

Earlier she described it as a “terrible incident”, adding: “All my thoughts are with those who have been injured, their loved ones and the emergency services on the scene.”

The attack came shortly after worshippers had been attending evening prayers at the Muslim Welfare House.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing bystanders wrestle the suspect to the ground and pin him down until officers arrived.

One eyewitness speaking to LBC said the van had hit people on the pavement but had not collided with a building. “It looked like he had lost control of the van or something,” he said.

Pictures posted on social media show more than a dozen emergency vehicles near the UKCG Help Centre at the junction of Seven Sisters Road and the A503 Tollington Road.

Cynthia Vanzella said on Twitter: “Horrible to watch police officers doing cardiac massage at people on the floor, desperately trying to save them. I just hope they did.”

The incident followed a series of attacks in Britain.

Eight people were killed and 50 injured on June 3 when three Islamist militants drove into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed people at nearby restaurants and bars.

Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England.

On March 22, a man drove a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London and stabbed a policeman to death before being shot dead. His attack killed five people.

Courtesy The Telegraph